For the longest time, space seemed like just a big, nearly empty place. However, as we learned more about the universe around us, we discovered other planets orbiting our Sun, and even planets that orbit other stars trillions of miles away. In this video, discover how NASA has explored the space beyond Earth and our solar system with spacecraft like Voyagers 1 and 2, and how we’ve discovered thousands of planets outside of our solar system — also called exoplanets — with space telescopes like Kepler and TESS.

This animation shows where the two Voyager spacecraft are currently located relative to the planets of our solar system, as well as how long it took each Voyager to enter interstellar space. Also shown are the termination shock (in red), the heliopause (blue oval), and the bow wave (blue arc at left).